A Republican gubernatorial candidate accused Louisiana Democrats of reaching “a new low” with TV ads that accuse him of insulting Protestants, and demanded the ad be taken off the air.
Democratic Party officials continued to defend the spot, as did its two leading candidates for governor, despite cries of outrage from Republican officials about the ads aimed at U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal.
The commercial began running Monday in the Shreveport, Alexandria and Monroe media markets, which are more heavily Protestant than the southern part of the state. It features an unidentified woman narrator proclaiming that Jindal “insulted thousands of Louisiana Protestants” via articles he wrote in the mid-1990s.
“He has referred to Protestant religions as scandalous, depraved, selfish and heretical,” the narrator says. It then directs viewers to a Web site, www.jindalonreligion.com, where links to the articles are found.
Jindal, who converted to Catholicism as a teen after being raised by Hindu parents, said the commercial is defamatory and misleading and denied that he has ever insulted another branch of the Christian faith.
“They’re absolute lies. We’re not talking about an exaggeration,” Jindal said. “They’re completely out of bounds here.”
Unfortunately, jindalonreligion.com’s link to “Why Catholicism Is Different” does not get you to the key passage of the article: you have to pay the New Oxford Review to see that. http://www.newoxfordreview.org/article.jsp?did=1296-jindal
But from what I’ve seen quoted elsewhere, the “depraved Protestants” charge looks baseless and deceptive.
When will politicians stop villifying one another – a start giving us reasons to vote for them, and not against the opponent? (And when will we stop believing rhetorical slight-of-hand in negative campaigning?)
The ad itself and a fairly thorough response (as much as possible, given that the articles in question are subscription) are at [url=http://closedcafeteria.blogspot.com/2007/08/democrat-smear-of-bobby-jindal.html]The Cafeteria is Closed[/url].
The funny thing is that the “depravity” line comes from Calvin, who was, er, Protestant.